Given the stresses Matt Hancock has been under the last 16 months or so it is understandable that he couldn't keep the snake inside the pet store and the public might forgive.
OTOH fornicating with someone you hired using taxpayers' money looks bad and could be toastish for Matt.
But what's the mechanism? Matt Hancock might have enough residual shame to resign for his hanky-panky, but one of the defining beliefs of this government is "you can't make me". Which is why, two years in, hardly anyone has resigned and the only reason people have been sacked is that they have personally annoyed the boss.
Ministerial code violation (stop laughing at the back) or police action for lockdown/social distancing breaches?
That Dorset Tory MP telling the DUP on live TV that his constituents would “bite his hand off” to be inside the EU Single Market was a classic.
And the UK internal market - he was basically saying that NI has the best of both worlds (without to downsides)
You knew that, of course, but are selectively quoting out of context
The NI protocol won't last because it doesn't work. But on paper NI does indeed have an advantage in being in both the EEA and UK markets. As it can't easily receive "imports" from GB it does of course need to completely reconfigure its trading patterns so that its good in via ROI and goods out to GB, but they could get that sorted.
Is anyone else worried that if Boris Johnson sacks Matt Hancock for having an affair that the irony will be so great that it will create a black hole so large that will end up consuming the universe?
Nope - it will just 100% confirm that the rules are
1) One rule for him, another for anyone else 2) He will do anything that protects his position even if that means doing contradictory things on the same day.
Is anyone else worried that if Boris Johnson sacks Matt Hancock for having an affair that the irony will be so great that it will create a black hole so large that will end up consuming the universe?
At this point, the end of the Universe would be something of a relief.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
Health Secretary Matt Hancock 'is having affair' with his closest aide, 43, after pair were caught on camera having a passionate clinch outside his Whitehall office
Bonking around with a women he hired in the middle of a pandemic...
Never understood why an affair meant a politician should resign. Yeah, it's a crappy thing to do morally, on a personal level we can be indignant and I find it disgraceful, but it doesnt follow that it means they were bad at their job.
Of course if they've lied about it when pressed or theres aggravating factors then maybe - compromised position etc.
If a man can betray his family then he can betray his country.
If a woman can betray her country she can later be promoted to Secretary of State for the Home Department...
Is anyone else worried that if Boris Johnson sacks Matt Hancock for having an affair that the irony will be so great that it will create a black hole so large that will end up consuming the universe?
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
"There isn't an issue".
Hadn't realised you had been briefing the government minister who when faced with the facts said the industry was crying wolf.
As there *is already* an issue we will see who is correct about the UK logistics industry. You? Or the UK logistics industry.
You really do need to look in a mirror and wonder if the "I know everything about everything" approach is a long term winning strategy.
I was very skeptical that the Tories would take B&S (but then I was also disbelieving that they would take 'Pool)
But, the flare-up in Israel/Palestine came at a perfect time for GG to exploit it. Now, I would not be at all surprised to see Labour lose it because of GG.
But the point is: B&S was a completely unnecessary by-election.
SKS may be forensic. But, he is just useless at politics, which needs a certain grubby street wisdom.
The Jewish Chronicle reports that Muslims in B&S are boycotting Labour because
Labour’s position on Palestine Kim Leadbetter is a lesbian Sir Keir’s wife is Jewish
Cultural Diversity is to be applauded I suppose?
The inevitable endpoint of Wokeness and multi-kulti and CRT is people voting almost entirely on their race and identity, as that is all that ‘matters’
So Muslims will abandon Labour for a Gallowayish Muslim Party
And, in the end, many white people will vote for white pride and a White Party. It is already happening in the USA. We hurtle towards tragedy
So happy to live in a country with a welcoming policy towards migrants
If Scotland is such a wecoming country towards migrants, why do so few of them end up there?
My part of the north east is rammed full of them. The supermarkets have a significant selection of foods to cover the Polish and Russian communities, there's a fair number of English, we have Hungarian and Latvian kids in my daughter's rural primary school class etc etc
After growing up in London moving to Devon was a bit jarring, and Edinburgh is much the same. Sure, there are Polish food shops, but the statistics are quite clear that there's a lot less immigration to Scotland than England.
The answer as to why has nothing to do with how welcoming Scotland is, but is the same reason why Scotland's population has declined relative to England's for decades - London's economy is much stronger.
The SNP like to spin this myth of "difference" from England (but not Wales or Northern Ireland, for some curious reason). Almost all the data says attitudes are much more similar than different - but that does not suit the separatist's narrative.
While London does skew England's "born abroad" stats, all English regions bar the North East and South West have higher proportions of foreign born residents than Scotland.
The ‘difference’ isn’t a myth when it comes to supporting EU membership, fawning over Farage for two decades or voting for a xenophobic Tory party, is it?
Of course, voting for an Anglophobic SNP is so much better....
Health Secretary Matt Hancock 'is having affair' with his closest aide, 43, after pair were caught on camera having a passionate clinch outside his Whitehall office
Bonking around with a women he hired in the middle of a pandemic...
Never understood why an affair meant a politician should resign. Yeah, it's a crappy thing to do morally, on a personal level we can be indignant and I find it disgraceful, but it doesnt follow that it means they were bad at their job.
Of course if they've lied about it when pressed or theres aggravating factors then maybe - compromised position etc.
If a man can betray his family then he can betray his country.
Rules out Boris Johnson...oh, by some measures he has. Vlad must be very pleased with PM Johnson
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
Indeed. There's no shortage of people able to drive and able to be trained to drive HGVs.
Having a shortage of people willing to work for crap wages isn't a problem.
In isolation to the rest of the economy that may be true.
In aggregate if we need extra workers in several big sectors like hospitality, health, care, farming and transport then it may not just be a case of increasing wages.
We will continue to get high levels of immigration over the next decade, once covid is done, because we need it due to our demographics. Whether we want it or not will be secondary.
Or possibly in some cases this may have the desirable effect of forcing substitution with better technology.
My local area is blighted by the presence of hundreds of HGVs trucking limestone and cement from cement kilms to distributors. All the kilms are rail served, but currently its cheaper to take substantial amounts of it out be road. Forcing a modal switch to rail would be no bad thing (although it might require Network Rail to sort out some of the real bottlenecks on the system).
Given the stresses Matt Hancock has been under the last 16 months or so it is understandable that he couldn't keep the snake inside the pet store and the public might forgive.
OTOH fornicating with someone you hired using taxpayers' money looks bad and could be toastish for Matt.
But what's the mechanism? Matt Hancock might have enough residual shame to resign for his hanky-panky, but one of the defining beliefs of this government is "you can't make me". Which is why, two years in, hardly anyone has resigned and the only reason people have been sacked is that they have personally annoyed the boss.
Ministerial code violation (stop laughing at the back) or police action for lockdown/social distancing breaches?
One consequence of this may well be that the 19th does become terminus day. How is Hancock going to defend continuing restrictions if he has so massively broken the rules himself?
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
Sounds like a variation on the problems Deliveroo et al are having - without a constant supply of people they can treat like shit, leave and get replaced by more suckers, their business model is in trouble.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
The market isn't perfect - so the price equilibrium will take years to be arrived at during which time shortages will be aplenty.
The market is pretty damned good actually.
Every company will find it in their self-interest to solve their problems. Which is what they should be doing. The least efficient or productive companies will struggle the most. So be it.
It's not the government's responsibility to do businesses job for it. Businesses need to stop complaining and do their own job and take responsibility for what they choose to pay.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
Not 100% they were also using tax avoidance (forcing "employees" to use PSC) as well.
It's worth noting that logistics wasn't a big issue back in January to March, it was the April changes that resulted in problems as people's weekly pay packets halved on April 16th - and the issue really started to appear on April 19th - logistic recruitment issues appeared on my radar towards the end of that week.
I was desperate to get out on the roads, but neither Fox Jr nor any of their cousins seems bothered, and it isn't just about living in big cities.
I recruited for a reasonably well-paid job, for which one applicant said he'd refuse if we required him to come to the office more than once a fortnight, as there was no public transport link and he felt the climate impact of driving more often would be unacceptable. Didn't appear to be an excuse - he was very into climate issues generally. And I'm aware of several people who have told their employers that they'd like to go to meetings by train even if it takes longer, for the same reason. I have a middle-aged friend who loves travel but has said she will never fly again unless required to for work. The issue does seem to be cutting through gradually.
I have not done any driving on business for over 5 years. Aligns with company policy and suits me.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
Health Secretary Matt Hancock 'is having affair' with his closest aide, 43, after pair were caught on camera having a passionate clinch outside his Whitehall office
Bonking around with a women he hired in the middle of a pandemic...
Never understood why an affair meant a politician should resign. Yeah, it's a crappy thing to do morally, on a personal level we can be indignant and I find it disgraceful, but it doesnt follow that it means they were bad at their job.
Of course if they've lied about it when pressed or theres aggravating factors then maybe - compromised position etc.
Read the report with growing distaste about the journalist - doorstepping the wife, noting that she's wearing her wedding ring and diagnosing her expression seem clearly intrusive and frankly none of our business.
When the Mail on Sunday ran a story saying I'd told a racist joke (I'd speculated about what the BBC would be like if run by the Taliban - Xena Warrior Housewife etc. - and the Taliban are foreign so...), their journalist doorstepped my wife demanding a comment, and tried to provoke her by sneering at the small house ("I bet you've got a bigger one hidden away, eh?").
As for Hancock, I think the only issue is whether there is evidence of favouritism (in recruitment, promotion, etc.) or lack of consent. In its absence, oh well.
I was very skeptical that the Tories would take B&S (but then I was also disbelieving that they would take 'Pool)
But, the flare-up in Israel/Palestine came at a perfect time for GG to exploit it. Now, I would not be at all surprised to see Labour lose it because of GG.
But the point is: B&S was a completely unnecessary by-election.
SKS may be forensic. But, he is just useless at politics, which needs a certain grubby street wisdom.
The Jewish Chronicle reports that Muslims in B&S are boycotting Labour because
Labour’s position on Palestine Kim Leadbetter is a lesbian Sir Keir’s wife is Jewish
Cultural Diversity is to be applauded I suppose?
The inevitable endpoint of Wokeness and multi-kulti and CRT is people voting almost entirely on their race and identity, as that is all that ‘matters’
So Muslims will abandon Labour for a Gallowayish Muslim Party
And, in the end, many white people will vote for white pride and a White Party. It is already happening in the USA. We hurtle towards tragedy
So happy to live in a country with a welcoming policy towards migrants
If Scotland is such a wecoming country towards migrants, why do so few of them end up there?
My part of the north east is rammed full of them. The supermarkets have a significant selection of foods to cover the Polish and Russian communities, there's a fair number of English, we have Hungarian and Latvian kids in my daughter's rural primary school class etc etc
After growing up in London moving to Devon was a bit jarring, and Edinburgh is much the same. Sure, there are Polish food shops, but the statistics are quite clear that there's a lot less immigration to Scotland than England.
The answer as to why has nothing to do with how welcoming Scotland is, but is the same reason why Scotland's population has declined relative to England's for decades - London's economy is much stronger.
The SNP like to spin this myth of "difference" from England (but not Wales or Northern Ireland, for some curious reason). Almost all the data says attitudes are much more similar than different - but that does not suit the separatist's narrative.
While London does skew England's "born abroad" stats, all English regions bar the North East and South West have higher proportions of foreign born residents than Scotland.
The ‘difference’ isn’t a myth when it comes to supporting EU membership, fawning over Farage for two decades or voting for a xenophobic Tory party, is it?
Of course, voting for an Anglophobic SNP is so much better....
I suspect the only reason the xenophobic SNP did not come out in favour of Brexit (Scoxit?) was because English Tories were in favour.
Bev Turner 🌸 @beverleyturner · 1h This was while @matthancock was telling YOU not to go on dates, meet new partners or have sex with someone you didn't live with. All those couples didn't see each other for months! Meanwhile the lying weasel was having an affair. Still trust this lot??!
About 18 months ago, there was a list, compiled by Commons researchers (I think I obtained via a most reliable pee-bee!), of those MPs with wandering hands. Matt was on it.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
Sounds like a variation on the problems Deliveroo et al are having - without a constant supply of people they can treat like shit, leave and get replaced by more suckers, their business model is in trouble.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock 'is having affair' with his closest aide, 43, after pair were caught on camera having a passionate clinch outside his Whitehall office
Bonking around with a women he hired in the middle of a pandemic...
Never understood why an affair meant a politician should resign. Yeah, it's a crappy thing to do morally, on a personal level we can be indignant and I find it disgraceful, but it doesnt follow that it means they were bad at their job.
Of course if they've lied about it when pressed or theres aggravating factors then maybe - compromised position etc.
Read the report with growing distaste about the journalist - doorstepping the wife, noting that she's wearing her wedding ring and diagnosing her expression seem clearly intrusive and frankly none of our business.
When the Mail on Sunday ran a story saying I'd told a racist joke (I'd speculated about what the BBC would be like if run by the Taliban - Xena Warrior Housewife etc. - and the Taliban are foreign so...), their journalist doorstepped my wife demanding a comment, and tried to provoke her by sneering at the small house ("I bet you've got a bigger one hidden away, eh?").
As for Hancock, I think the only issue is whether there is evidence of favouritism (in recruitment, promotion, etc.) or lack of consent. In its absence, oh well.
The sensationalist tabloid press are scum of the universe
Health Secretary Matt Hancock 'is having affair' with his closest aide, 43, after pair were caught on camera having a passionate clinch outside his Whitehall office
Bonking around with a women he hired in the middle of a pandemic...
Never understood why an affair meant a politician should resign. Yeah, it's a crappy thing to do morally, on a personal level we can be indignant and I find it disgraceful, but it doesnt follow that it means they were bad at their job.
Of course if they've lied about it when pressed or theres aggravating factors then maybe - compromised position etc.
Read the report with growing distaste about the journalist - doorstepping the wife, noting that she's wearing her wedding ring and diagnosing her expression seem clearly intrusive and frankly none of our business.
When the Mail on Sunday ran a story saying I'd told a racist joke (I'd speculated about what the BBC would be like if run by the Taliban - Xena Warrior Housewife etc. - and the Taliban are foreign so...), their journalist doorstepped my wife demanding a comment, and tried to provoke her by sneering at the small house ("I bet you've got a bigger one hidden away, eh?").
As for Hancock, I think the only issue is whether there is evidence of favouritism (in recruitment, promotion, etc.) or lack of consent. In its absence, oh well.
Usual crass bigotry from Carlotta, her union jack knickers will be twitching now you have shown some real facts, old toom tabard really really hates Scotland with a vengance.
I spent 15 years on Teesside. It was the only home my two younger kids had known. Yet in a suburban town described as "full of parochial bigots" by a retired friend who was born and raised there, we never fitted in as the "local town for local people" thing was very real.
For me the icing on the cake was the Mayor (and leader of the local independents party) campaigning personally against us in 2019 with a "they're not from here they will never get here they should go home" platform - and winning massively.
I now live in a village of a thousand people where the nearest town is 12 miles away and the nearest city 3 times that, and people have fallen over themselves to be welcoming. I bought a property where the former residents not only had lived there for 30 years but were multi-generational villagers - and people couldn't be warmer to yet more outlanders moving in.
For me it is a straight compare / contrast. Big chunks of England are openly hostile to anyone not from there (whether that means they are from the neighbouring county or another country) with more and more people voting for even more hostility. Scotland couldn't be more different.
DavidL, if you're reading this, do call 999 now - I'd not read the detailed symptoms when I wrote general good wishes earlier. It's urgent, please don't wait.
Listen to Nick, he's a doctor.
I agree with Dr Palmer, chest pain is 999.
Happened to a friend of mine last week. The paramedics found him in ten mins in a lay-by through his mobile phone and bizarrely gave him an aspirin before taking him to hospital.
Aspirin is a blood thinner (ADP blocker if I remember correctly although it’s a while since I was looking at thrombosis). Absolutely the right thing to do
Yes - there was even a time in the US where they were prescribing Aspirin daily for older age groups as a pre-heart attack treatment. Apparently if you have aspirin already in your system, it can massively reduce the effects.
The problem (IIRC) turned out to be that the side effects of giving Aspirin to everyone, daily, were bigger than the damage prevented...
It’s a Cox-1 inhibitor so of course it has GI side effects 🤷♂️
Health Secretary Matt Hancock 'is having affair' with his closest aide, 43, after pair were caught on camera having a passionate clinch outside his Whitehall office
Bonking around with a women he hired in the middle of a pandemic...
Never understood why an affair meant a politician should resign. Yeah, it's a crappy thing to do morally, on a personal level we can be indignant and I find it disgraceful, but it doesnt follow that it means they were bad at their job.
Of course if they've lied about it when pressed or theres aggravating factors then maybe - compromised position etc.
Read the report with growing distaste about the journalist - doorstepping the wife, noting that she's wearing her wedding ring and diagnosing her expression seem clearly intrusive and frankly none of our business.
When the Mail on Sunday ran a story saying I'd told a racist joke (I'd speculated about what the BBC would be like if run by the Taliban - Xena Warrior Housewife etc. - and the Taliban are foreign so...), their journalist doorstepped my wife demanding a comment, and tried to provoke her by sneering at the small house ("I bet you've got a bigger one hidden away, eh?").
As for Hancock, I think the only issue is whether there is evidence of favouritism (in recruitment, promotion, etc.) or lack of consent. In its absence, oh well.
No. The issue is whether he broken the covid rules which he insisted on national TV every single f*cking night were essential to save lives and protect the NHS.
As that twitter person said: the rest of us were even told we couldn't see partners who lived in other houses.
Married people in care homes sometimes didn't see their spouse of fifty years for months on end because of HIS rules.
What I have noted, being back in the construction industry again, that North East Brexit types despite now voting for Boris still make Tory jokes on the regular.
I heard one chap describe Keswick as a place where “old Tories go to die”.
One of the interesting things about the ONS data is that you can back out the proportion of people who stop being their (previously parent selected) denomination when they get to adulthood.
So, 19% of Christians move to the "No Religion" column between 15 and 20. For Muslims, it's 14%. The best performing religion, perhaps unsurprisingly, is Judaism.
Are there prizes for the rabbis?
Jews win because of the way they are counted. If Judaism is a religion but not an ethnicity, the only way non-religious Jews can express their identity is to claim to be religious. There was a bit of a fuss about this in the census.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
Sounds like a variation on the problems Deliveroo et al are having - without a constant supply of people they can treat like shit, leave and get replaced by more suckers, their business model is in trouble.
Amazon is having the same problem in the US.
Even the illegal immigrants being exploited by traffickers are staying away from some jobs. Which rather makes a point, doesn't it?
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
Indeed. There's no shortage of people able to drive and able to be trained to drive HGVs.
Having a shortage of people willing to work for crap wages isn't a problem.
In isolation to the rest of the economy that may be true.
In aggregate if we need extra workers in several big sectors like hospitality, health, care, farming and transport then it may not just be a case of increasing wages.
We will continue to get high levels of immigration over the next decade, once covid is done, because we need it due to our demographics. Whether we want it or not will be secondary.
Or possibly in some cases this may have the desirable effect of forcing substitution with better technology.
My local area is blighted by the presence of hundreds of HGVs trucking limestone and cement from cement kilms to distributors. All the kilms are rail served, but currently its cheaper to take substantial amounts of it out be road. Forcing a modal switch to rail would be no bad thing (although it might require Network Rail to sort out some of the real bottlenecks on the system).
And in your final sentence you reveal the real problem - it's a issue within Network Rail that won't be easy to fix, especially when the kilns probably require 24/7 regular and consistent supplies.
O/T I spent some time with a friend the other day telling me the absolute horror of what online gambling addiction does to families. I am normally not in favour of banning anything for consenting adults but I am now definitely in favour of banning it if possible. Are there any PBers with information or views on this?
There are some excellent gambling addiction podcasts. I’m addicted to several of them….
Seriously though, I definitely agree. I think the liberalisation of gambling has gone too far. The industry makes its profits when people are at their most vulnerable. I’d be happy enough for all gambling to be completely banned.
How about one single exchange, "Rishifair".... 5% rake to Gov't coffers ?
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
"There isn't an issue".
Hadn't realised you had been briefing the government minister who when faced with the facts said the industry was crying wolf.
As there *is already* an issue we will see who is correct about the UK logistics industry. You? Or the UK logistics industry.
You really do need to look in a mirror and wonder if the "I know everything about everything" approach is a long term winning strategy.
There isn't an issue already.
When you refer to "the logistics industry" whom do you refer to? The bosses whinging that they want to pay lower wages to their staff? Or the staff? Or are you taking a well rounded balanced look?
If you just mean the owners of the businesses who don't want to pay their staff a living wage then f##k them. They can pay market rates or they can have no staff.
A free market cuts both ways. It doesn't help every business, if they uncompetitive they can go out of business.
On the explosive revelation Matt Hancock has been having an affair with an aide in his work office during the Covid crisis, Grant Shapps says it’s an “entirely private matter - I don’t plan to comment” #timesradio
Some context for “entirely privately” line: -affair conducted in Health HQ -with an aide given taxpayer funded contract in secret last year -in the middle of the afternoon
They weren't social distanced if the photos are genuine.
Yet again we have the rule makers ignoring the rules that they tell us are essential for survival of the NHS and so on and on. Rules are for the little people.
He must be sacked for that. Stay at home, protect the NHS, snog a colleague, save lives doesn't have the same ring does it?
I see Brillo is 'taking a break' from Gammon Boomer News. I wonder if it's health related. The revolting fucker looks like he's being force fed so his liver can be made into pâté.
Summer holiday mate
less than 2 weeks after the channel launched - seems a strange time for a holiday.
He may also be not on screen but working behind the scenes. I’d imagine it takes a lot of time to prepare for a show
On the explosive revelation Matt Hancock has been having an affair with an aide in his work office during the Covid crisis, Grant Shapps says it’s an “entirely private matter - I don’t plan to comment” #timesradio
Some context for “entirely privately” line: -affair conducted in Health HQ -with an aide given taxpayer funded contract in secret last year -in the middle of the afternoon
They weren't social distanced if the photos are genuine.
Yet again we have the rule makers ignoring the rules that they tell us are essential for survival of the NHS and so on and on. Rules are for the little people.
He must be sacked for that. Stay at home, protect the NHS, snog a colleague, save lives doesn't have the same ring does it?
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
There absolutely was competition from Europe, but that was more EU registered trucks filling up with cheap French diesel, doing a load of jobs here then going back again. Trucking like so many other industries only really opened the doors to migrant labour when there was a shortage of locals.
Some of that shortage will be driven by wages but also by conditions. The wages piece really becomes a problem now thanks to the IR35 changes where freelance drivers are suddenly treated as employees - the big spike in costs can't / won't be met anywhere in the supply chain so people have quit.
I was angry when Cummings broken the rules to have a holiday in Barnard Castle and I'm angry now.
Be interesting to see what the snap polling shows on the public view of this.
Technically Barnard Castle was a day trip from his parent's "farm" on the outskirts of Durham.
The one thing I would agree with Cummings on was that driving down the A688 is a good test and whether you can concentrate enough to drive a long way - that road is a faff to drive along.
Is anyone else worried that if Boris Johnson sacks Matt Hancock for having an affair that the irony will be so great that it will create a black hole so large that will end up consuming the universe?
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
On the explosive revelation Matt Hancock has been having an affair with an aide in his work office during the Covid crisis, Grant Shapps says it’s an “entirely private matter - I don’t plan to comment” #timesradio
Some context for “entirely privately” line: -affair conducted in Health HQ -with an aide given taxpayer funded contract in secret last year -in the middle of the afternoon
They weren't social distanced if the photos are genuine.
Yet again we have the rule makers ignoring the rules that they tell us are essential for survival of the NHS and so on and on. Rules are for the little people.
He must be sacked for that. Stay at home, protect the NHS, snog a colleague, save lives doesn't have the same ring does it?
Hancock’s “hand – arse – tongue” manoeuvre was clearly in contradiction of the prevailing “hands – face – space” guidance, which calls into question more than his personal romantic life…
Interesting little side fact. According to my friend Hancock and Coladangelo were contemporaries at Oxygen FM, the short lived but innovative student commercial radio station, in the late 90s. Matt in true Alan Partridge style was on the sports desk, Gina was on news and apparently quite important in the whole setup. My friend was a late night funk, disco and house DJ. I once presented the weather forecast and wasn't invited back.
Given the stresses Matt Hancock has been under the last 16 months or so it is understandable that he couldn't keep the snake inside the pet store and the public might forgive.
OTOH fornicating with someone you hired using taxpayers' money looks bad and could be toastish for Matt.
Maybe I am old fashioned but I want his mind on the frigging job.
Reflecting on @anandMenon1@UKandEU very good interview with Frost last night. He doesn't seem to accept that the EU's current interests - integrity of the Single Market re NI - as fundamental. More as ongoing, irrational negativity about Brexit, which will gradually fade 1/
This is a big misunderstanding: the EU's main interests are actually fundamental to the politics of some of the big players (especially France). Combined with third country status, this will bake structural instability and fractiousness into the relationship for some time 2/
What I have noted, being back in the construction industry again, that North East Brexit types despite now voting for Boris still make Tory jokes on the regular.
I heard one chap describe Keswick as a place where “old Tories go to die”.
As I keep pointing out we don't have a Tory government. The Blue Labour Cult is something NE Brexit types can vote for, the Conservative Party is not.
What I have noted, being back in the construction industry again, that North East Brexit types despite now voting for Boris still make Tory jokes on the regular.
I heard one chap describe Keswick as a place where “old Tories go to die”.
He's probably eyeing a move there himself, mind. Will be interesting to see how long-lasting the Brexit blue pill turns out to be for these guys. I am guessing its effects will linger a long time. Voting Tory is probably like committing murder, once you've done it once...
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Employers will need to invest in better tech etc as well. The US has always been competitive despite (mostly) paying higher wages and salaries, because of greater investment.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
O/T I spent some time with a friend the other day telling me the absolute horror of what online gambling addiction does to families. I am normally not in favour of banning anything for consenting adults but I am now definitely in favour of banning it if possible. Are there any PBers with information or views on this?
It's truly shocking. I don't know about banning it, but I'd certainly like to see the banning of gambling adverts on television and for sporting events.
The first sport I got hooked on as a kid was F1 and I was exposed to Rothmans, Marlboro, Benson & Hedges, etc., etc. And in no way did it make me want to start smoking! I think the tobacco industry used to claim that advertising was all about market share, though I can imagine it wasn't great for people trying to stop smoking.
But I can imagine the gambling adverts on TV do have an influence on kids. And I think if tobacco adverts are banned, then gambling ads should be banned too.
The gambling companies gather vast amounts of data on the behaviour of their users and use that data to close off gamblers who won money from them and encourage gamblers who lose money to them. They know exactly what they're doing with addicted gamblers.
I'd ban all instant-play gambling. At least when someone is staking money on football matches, horse races, etc, there's a limit due to the number of events. It's the instant games that are the biggest problem.
I was angry when Cummings broken the rules to have a holiday in Barnard Castle and I'm angry now.
Be interesting to see what the snap polling shows on the public view of this.
I was way angrier about Cummings. Don't know if that's rational or not but feels like the pressure/restrictions we were all under & the ludicrous nature of Barnard castle made it way worse.
I actually know one of Matt Hancock's aides, so was a bit concerned to see the story... thankfully it's not her!
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
"There isn't an issue".
Hadn't realised you had been briefing the government minister who when faced with the facts said the industry was crying wolf.
As there *is already* an issue we will see who is correct about the UK logistics industry. You? Or the UK logistics industry.
You really do need to look in a mirror and wonder if the "I know everything about everything" approach is a long term winning strategy.
There isn't an issue already.
When you refer to "the logistics industry" whom do you refer to? The bosses whinging that they want to pay lower wages to their staff? Or the staff? Or are you taking a well rounded balanced look?
If you just mean the owners of the businesses who don't want to pay their staff a living wage then f##k them. They can pay market rates or they can have no staff.
A free market cuts both ways. It doesn't help every business, if they uncompetitive they can go out of business.
All 6 pallet networks are reporting delivery delays due mainly to lack of backhaul availability - that shows you there is an issue.
Backhaul availability is where a lorry is booked for a one way journey and the pallet network uses the empty spare capacity on the reverse leg to move things cheaply. That empty space doesn't exist at the moment and in a lot of cases its because the initial journeys aren't being made.
On the explosive revelation Matt Hancock has been having an affair with an aide in his work office during the Covid crisis, Grant Shapps says it’s an “entirely private matter - I don’t plan to comment” #timesradio
Some context for “entirely privately” line: -affair conducted in Health HQ -with an aide given taxpayer funded contract in secret last year -in the middle of the afternoon
They weren't social distanced if the photos are genuine.
Yet again we have the rule makers ignoring the rules that they tell us are essential for survival of the NHS and so on and on. Rules are for the little people.
He must be sacked for that. Stay at home, protect the NHS, snog a colleague, save lives doesn't have the same ring does it?
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
Not 100% they were also using tax avoidance (forcing "employees" to use PSC) as well.
It's worth noting that logistics wasn't a big issue back in January to March, it was the April changes that resulted in problems as people's weekly pay packets halved on April 16th - and the issue really started to appear on April 19th - logistic recruitment issues appeared on my radar towards the end of that week.
Ok. Still failing to see why the logistics companies shouldn’t be paying a fair wage. And if they have to increase their prices to make a margin then so be it
I was desperate to get out on the roads, but neither Fox Jr nor any of their cousins seems bothered, and it isn't just about living in big cities.
I recruited for a reasonably well-paid job, for which one applicant said he'd refuse if we required him to come to the office more than once a fortnight, as there was no public transport link and he felt the climate impact of driving more often would be unacceptable. Didn't appear to be an excuse - he was very into climate issues generally. And I'm aware of several people who have told their employers that they'd like to go to meetings by train even if it takes longer, for the same reason. I have a middle-aged friend who loves travel but has said she will never fly again unless required to for work. The issue does seem to be cutting through gradually.
I have not done any driving on business for over 5 years. Aligns with company policy and suits me.
I'm a Civil Servant and our policy has always been to prefer train travel. For long journeys I prefer it - more relaxing than having to drive a couple of hours either end of the day in rush hour, and you can use time on the train constructively.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
To be fair, that is hardly news
You and I know that, but it is occasionally ferociously denied by Remainiacs
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
I was just thinking how the Overton window has shifted, a Conservative government has just implemented a very costly advertising ban (for tv companies and ad agencies) and mostly met with a shrug.
"the Government’s own impact assessment suggests that over 25 years the restrictions will cost broadcasters £1.5 billion, online platforms £3.5 billion, advertising agencies £550 million, and retailers and manufacturers of HFSS products will see their profits reduced by £659 million."
Those numbers don’t make sense - it implies that the incremental profit contribution from additional sales is marginal. (The HFSS manufacturer revenues will have to cover cost of manufacturing plus all the expenses above to leave the profits).
I suspect they’ve massively loaded the profit figures to come up with some big numbers
Tobacco advertising was banned for various methods starting in 1965 (for TV), IIRC.
Every time the bans were extended or increased, the industry would give a gigantic number for lost business - especially for non-tobacco ones.
Formula One was supposed to collapse from this {giggle}......
Hence why £1m is known as a “Bernie”.
Ecclestone, being the top negotiator he was, managed to both achieve his policy aim of getting the tobacco ad ban pushed, and his donation money back.
I was angry when Cummings broken the rules to have a holiday in Barnard Castle and I'm angry now.
Be interesting to see what the snap polling shows on the public view of this.
I'm not a fan of Question Time these days, but I watched the first question last night, which was about letting in UEFA big-wigs, sponsors and so on the watch the UEFA Cup Final. All, I think, except one of the audience, and he was somewhat half-hearted, thought it was wrong, and only Robert Buckland ..... well, he had to to, didn't he ...... of the panel defended it. He wasn't all that keen either.
Similar in the pub the other afternoon...... except of course that RB wasn't there!
I am beginning to feel that 'peak Boris' has passed, and things are going downhill quite rapidly. Might give a new dimension to B&S, too.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
Stopping to exploitation of foreign workers is fine. I am in full support.
Still looking forward to all this cheap Brexit food though, as promised.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock 'is having affair' with his closest aide, 43, after pair were caught on camera having a passionate clinch outside his Whitehall office
Bonking around with a women he hired in the middle of a pandemic...
Never understood why an affair meant a politician should resign. Yeah, it's a crappy thing to do morally, on a personal level we can be indignant and I find it disgraceful, but it doesnt follow that it means they were bad at their job.
Of course if they've lied about it when pressed or theres aggravating factors then maybe - compromised position etc.
Read the report with growing distaste about the journalist - doorstepping the wife, noting that she's wearing her wedding ring and diagnosing her expression seem clearly intrusive and frankly none of our business.
When the Mail on Sunday ran a story saying I'd told a racist joke (I'd speculated about what the BBC would be like if run by the Taliban - Xena Warrior Housewife etc. - and the Taliban are foreign so...), their journalist doorstepped my wife demanding a comment, and tried to provoke her by sneering at the small house ("I bet you've got a bigger one hidden away, eh?").
As for Hancock, I think the only issue is whether there is evidence of favouritism (in recruitment, promotion, etc.) or lack of consent. In its absence, oh well.
It’s not obvious from the photos there’s a lack of consent…
Is anyone else worried that if Boris Johnson sacks Matt Hancock for having an affair that the irony will be so great that it will create a black hole so large that will end up consuming the universe?
We'll be fine, he'll stand down to 'avoid a distraction at this critical time' so he can 'focus on his family after a hard year'. Boris will be 'sad to see him go'.
I was desperate to get out on the roads, but neither Fox Jr nor any of their cousins seems bothered, and it isn't just about living in big cities.
I recruited for a reasonably well-paid job, for which one applicant said he'd refuse if we required him to come to the office more than once a fortnight, as there was no public transport link and he felt the climate impact of driving more often would be unacceptable. Didn't appear to be an excuse - he was very into climate issues generally. And I'm aware of several people who have told their employers that they'd like to go to meetings by train even if it takes longer, for the same reason. I have a middle-aged friend who loves travel but has said she will never fly again unless required to for work. The issue does seem to be cutting through gradually.
I have not done any driving on business for over 5 years. Aligns with company policy and suits me.
I did an awful lot of it. Hated it as it meant I had so much unproductive time. If I ever went back to work I would not take a job that meant I did that again. I can see once this eases up that will be an increasing issue in the labour market now people are used to not having to drive.
I see Brillo is 'taking a break' from Gammon Boomer News. I wonder if it's health related. The revolting fucker looks like he's being force fed so his liver can be made into pâté.
Summer holiday mate
I’ve just pinned my reputation as figurehead to a media startup in a competitive and quickly changing market, which has had a shaky beginning for technical reasons and with possible ad revenue problems.
I shall still be taking my summer holidays of course.
Hope Andrew Neil is OK. Perhaps it is the strain of maintaining that GB News is not a news channel despite having the word News in its name, and despite his own comparisons of GB News with BBC News and Sky News channels.
Judging from briefly looking in each day, GBN's sound problems seem to have been fixed; streaming is better; lots of adverts and weather forecasts but still barely any news. Studio design looks dated but presumably it is what they wanted. One presenter seemed to be having problems focussing on the autocue – glasses needed?
.@BorisJohnson is the last person to fire anyone for having an affair, of course. But if Hancock broke Covid rules (which he denies) then that would be altogether different.....
...Imagine if you've been literally banned by a govt from hugging your own grandchildren cos they are in 'a different household' and the health secretary has been hugging his lover from 'a different household'.
I reckon that will be what does for Hancock. When I saw the pic of their clinch it’s what I said almost immediately. Snogging a married woman whilst telling people not to hug their family is bad bad bad, I’d say he has to go
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
... for the wages and T&Cs on offer. Most people have their price.
O/T I spent some time with a friend the other day telling me the absolute horror of what online gambling addiction does to families. I am normally not in favour of banning anything for consenting adults but I am now definitely in favour of banning it if possible. Are there any PBers with information or views on this?
It's truly shocking. I don't know about banning it, but I'd certainly like to see the banning of gambling adverts on television and for sporting events.
The first sport I got hooked on as a kid was F1 and I was exposed to Rothmans, Marlboro, Benson & Hedges, etc., etc. And in no way did it make me want to start smoking! I think the tobacco industry used to claim that advertising was all about market share, though I can imagine it wasn't great for people trying to stop smoking.
But I can imagine the gambling adverts on TV do have an influence on kids. And I think if tobacco adverts are banned, then gambling ads should be banned too.
The gambling companies gather vast amounts of data on the behaviour of their users and use that data to close off gamblers who won money from them and encourage gamblers who lose money to them. They know exactly what they're doing with addicted gamblers.
I'd ban all instant-play gambling. At least when someone is staking money on football matches, horse races, etc, there's a limit due to the number of events. It's the instant games that are the biggest problem.
There was a problem with certain companies issuing pre-pay credit cards, which could be used for gambling sites. These allowed loading money onto the card from a normal credit card. Which entirely circumvented the blocks on using credit cards in gambling....
Strangely it took a lot of effort to block this route - I believe it is still a problem.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
Not 100% they were also using tax avoidance (forcing "employees" to use PSC) as well.
It's worth noting that logistics wasn't a big issue back in January to March, it was the April changes that resulted in problems as people's weekly pay packets halved on April 16th - and the issue really started to appear on April 19th - logistic recruitment issues appeared on my radar towards the end of that week.
Ok. Still failing to see why the logistics companies shouldn’t be paying a fair wage. And if they have to increase their prices to make a margin then so be it
And paying salaries. Why should IR35 be an issue? Truck drivers should be on the payroll.
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
There absolutely was competition from Europe, but that was more EU registered trucks filling up with cheap French diesel, doing a load of jobs here then going back again. Trucking like so many other industries only really opened the doors to migrant labour when there was a shortage of locals.
Some of that shortage will be driven by wages but also by conditions. The wages piece really becomes a problem now thanks to the IR35 changes where freelance drivers are suddenly treated as employees - the big spike in costs can't / won't be met anywhere in the supply chain so people have quit.
The spike in costs can / will be met otherwise the end users won’t have product to sell
Mr. rkrkrk, the first lockdown was more severe both in practice and in terms of the psychological shock. I remember walking the dog and there being no cars on the roads. It was quite unsettling.
.@BorisJohnson is the last person to fire anyone for having an affair, of course. But if Hancock broke Covid rules (which he denies) then that would be altogether different.....
...Imagine if you've been literally banned by a govt from hugging your own grandchildren cos they are in 'a different household' and the health secretary has been hugging his lover from 'a different household'.
I reckon that will be what does for Hancock. When I saw the pic of their clinch it’s what I said almost immediately. Snogging a married woman whilst telling people not to hug their family is bad bad bad, I’d say he has to go
If you're willing to back Putin over the Black Sea incident because he's 'sticking a finger' up to Johnson then you're backing a war criminal, your backing someone with the blood of innocent Syrians on his hands, someone whose regime murderers journalists and opposition figures....
...If you think Britain shouldn't help protect the borders of its EU and NATO allies then your an idiot. Putin is a clear and present threat to Western democracy - not some one the democratic left should see as an ally,
What I have noted, being back in the construction industry again, that North East Brexit types despite now voting for Boris still make Tory jokes on the regular.
I heard one chap describe Keswick as a place where “old Tories go to die”.
As I keep pointing out we don't have a Tory government. The Blue Labour Cult is something NE Brexit types can vote for, the Conservative Party is not.
I completely agree. I was a Tory activist for many years and I don't recognise the current Conservative Party. It is the CINO party, based on the cult of celebrity and driven by those that are not interested in governing but just saying "yah boo sucks we won the election" as though that was an end in itself and the only objective of any importance.
I was angry when Cummings broken the rules to have a holiday in Barnard Castle and I'm angry now.
Be interesting to see what the snap polling shows on the public view of this.
I'm not a fan of Question Time these days, but I watched the first question last night, which was about letting in UEFA big-wigs, sponsors and so on the watch the UEFA Cup Final. All, I think, except one of the audience, and he was somewhat half-hearted, thought it was wrong, and only Robert Buckland ..... well, he had to to, didn't he ...... of the panel defended it. He wasn't all that keen either.
Similar in the pub the other afternoon...... except of course that RB wasn't there!
I am beginning to feel that 'peak Boris' has passed, and things are going downhill quite rapidly. Might give a new dimension to B&S, too.
The danger of thinking this though is that the audience on QT are very much like PB. You don’t sign up to QT (especially with its current rotating audience set up) if you are not very interested in politics and usually with quite string opinions. I’ve no doubt that the hypocrisy and one rule for them does rile people. But I’d also say that if the miracle happened and England or Wales reach the semi and/or final, most of the fans wouldn’t give a stuff.
I was angry when Cummings broken the rules to have a holiday in Barnard Castle and I'm angry now.
Be interesting to see what the snap polling shows on the public view of this.
I'm not a fan of Question Time these days, but I watched the first question last night, which was about letting in UEFA big-wigs, sponsors and so on the watch the UEFA Cup Final. All, I think, except one of the audience, and he was somewhat half-hearted, thought it was wrong, and only Robert Buckland ..... well, he had to to, didn't he ...... of the panel defended it. He wasn't all that keen either.
Similar in the pub the other afternoon...... except of course that RB wasn't there!
I am beginning to feel that 'peak Boris' has passed, and things are going downhill quite rapidly. Might give a new dimension to B&S, too.
Interestingly, on my shopping trip out yesterday, I noticed for the first that mask wearing was starting to slip. Several people (men mainly) had them on but pushed down under their chins so it was pointless. To date my patch has been pretty strict on the rules from what I've seen. Things are starting to slip.
I wonder whether the rows over the elite being exempted all over the place are part of this?
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
There absolutely was competition from Europe, but that was more EU registered trucks filling up with cheap French diesel, doing a load of jobs here then going back again. Trucking like so many other industries only really opened the doors to migrant labour when there was a shortage of locals.
Some of that shortage will be driven by wages but also by conditions. The wages piece really becomes a problem now thanks to the IR35 changes where freelance drivers are suddenly treated as employees - the big spike in costs can't / won't be met anywhere in the supply chain so people have quit.
There is no shortage of locals, there's a shortage of locals willing to work on the terms and conditions that some employers want to pay. The solution to that is to let the market find a new equilibrium of terms and conditions.
If elements of the supply chain can't compete with higher costs then they'll go out of business and cease to require transport. So the problem goes away. Or they actually can absorb the costs, so they do, so the problem goes away.
Either way your "disruption" is actually the chaos of the market working as it is supposed to do. Not a problem.
I was desperate to get out on the roads, but neither Fox Jr nor any of their cousins seems bothered, and it isn't just about living in big cities.
I recruited for a reasonably well-paid job, for which one applicant said he'd refuse if we required him to come to the office more than once a fortnight, as there was no public transport link and he felt the climate impact of driving more often would be unacceptable. Didn't appear to be an excuse - he was very into climate issues generally. And I'm aware of several people who have told their employers that they'd like to go to meetings by train even if it takes longer, for the same reason. I have a middle-aged friend who loves travel but has said she will never fly again unless required to for work. The issue does seem to be cutting through gradually.
I have not done any driving on business for over 5 years. Aligns with company policy and suits me.
I did an awful lot of it. Hated it as it meant I had so much unproductive time. If I ever went back to work I would not take a job that meant I did that again. I can see once this eases up that will be an increasing issue in the labour market now people are used to not having to drive.
I changed jobs partly because I didn't like driving to work (it was an hour each way, which was fine for a few years but started to become a drag towards the end). But the DfT stats suggest that road usage has bounced back to pre-COVID levels. It's rail commuters that haven't gone back:
How do you even get access to cctv footage like that? In the hours and hours of footage you would have specifically to go looking for something for something like that. Not something to stumble upon.
Usual crass bigotry from Carlotta, her union jack knickers will be twitching now you have shown some real facts, old toom tabard really really hates Scotland with a vengance.
I spent 15 years on Teesside. It was the only home my two younger kids had known. Yet in a suburban town described as "full of parochial bigots" by a retired friend who was born and raised there, we never fitted in as the "local town for local people" thing was very real.
For me the icing on the cake was the Mayor (and leader of the local independents party) campaigning personally against us in 2019 with a "they're not from here they will never get here they should go home" platform - and winning massively.
I now live in a village of a thousand people where the nearest town is 12 miles away and the nearest city 3 times that, and people have fallen over themselves to be welcoming. I bought a property where the former residents not only had lived there for 30 years but were multi-generational villagers - and people couldn't be warmer to yet more outlanders moving in.
For me it is a straight compare / contrast. Big chunks of England are openly hostile to anyone not from there (whether that means they are from the neighbouring county or another country) with more and more people voting for even more hostility. Scotland couldn't be more different.
I attended court in 2019 to act as a witness for a Korean gent who was assaulted by a Scottish bigot, who happened to be my neighbour, in a suburban Edinburgh park as he walked his dog.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
Stopping to exploitation of foreign workers is fine. I am in full support.
Still looking forward to all this cheap Brexit food though, as promised.
Chlorinated chicken is on it's way to a supermarket near you. Rule Britannia!
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
It's coming from Australia. Or don't you remember?
For a large proportion of the population, a labour shortage is great news. Maybe not for lawyers, but it is for anyone currently earning at or just above minimum wage.
What I have noted, being back in the construction industry again, that North East Brexit types despite now voting for Boris still make Tory jokes on the regular.
I heard one chap describe Keswick as a place where “old Tories go to die”.
As I keep pointing out we don't have a Tory government. The Blue Labour Cult is something NE Brexit types can vote for, the Conservative Party is not.
I completely agree. I was a Tory activist for many years and I don't recognise the current Conservative Party. It is the CINO party, based on the cult of celebrity and driven by those that are not interested in governing but just saying "yah boo sucks we won the election" as though that was an end in itself and the only objective of any importance.
To be fair, if you decide that winning the election is the only thing that matters, it's much easier to present yourself in a way that ensures you do win the election.
How do you even get access to cctv footage like that? In the hours and hours of footage you would have specifically to go looking for something for something like that. Not something to stumble upon.
I thought the same. Leaked security footage I suspect, probably sanctioned by Shagger himself.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
The reason that Brits didn't want the jobs was that the jobs have shit pay and shit conditions.
Would you get a job manually digging basements (most basement digging is still done very manually) at £10 an hour, for example? Basically, rather manual mining, without the pay....
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
I have no real problem with higher prices. I can easily afford to pay them and I never believed the lies we were told about Brexit making things cheaper. I am not sure that everyone is in the same position as me, though.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
Comments
1) One rule for him, another for anyone else
2) He will do anything that protects his position even if that means doing contradictory things on the same day.
Well,well.
Hadn't realised you had been briefing the government minister who when faced with the facts said the industry was crying wolf.
As there *is already* an issue we will see who is correct about the UK logistics industry. You? Or the UK logistics industry.
You really do need to look in a mirror and wonder if the "I know everything about everything" approach is a long term winning strategy.
My local area is blighted by the presence of hundreds of HGVs trucking limestone and cement from cement kilms to distributors. All the kilms are rail served, but currently its cheaper to take substantial amounts of it out be road. Forcing a modal switch to rail would be no bad thing (although it might require Network Rail to sort out some of the real bottlenecks on the system).
Every company will find it in their self-interest to solve their problems. Which is what they should be doing. The least efficient or productive companies will struggle the most. So be it.
It's not the government's responsibility to do businesses job for it. Businesses need to stop complaining and do their own job and take responsibility for what they choose to pay.
It's worth noting that logistics wasn't a big issue back in January to March, it was the April changes that resulted in problems as people's weekly pay packets halved on April 16th - and the issue really started to appear on April 19th - logistic recruitment issues appeared on my radar towards the end of that week.
When the Mail on Sunday ran a story saying I'd told a racist joke (I'd speculated about what the BBC would be like if run by the Taliban - Xena Warrior Housewife etc. - and the Taliban are foreign so...), their journalist doorstepped my wife demanding a comment, and tried to provoke her by sneering at the small house ("I bet you've got a bigger one hidden away, eh?").
As for Hancock, I think the only issue is whether there is evidence of favouritism (in recruitment, promotion, etc.) or lack of consent. In its absence, oh well.
Bev Turner 🌸
@beverleyturner
· 1h
This was while @matthancock was telling YOU not to go on dates, meet new partners or have sex with someone you didn't live with. All those couples didn't see each other for months! Meanwhile the lying weasel was having an affair. Still trust this lot??!
https://thesun.co.uk/news/15388014/matt-hancock-secret-affair-with-aide/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
For me the icing on the cake was the Mayor (and leader of the local independents party) campaigning personally against us in 2019 with a "they're not from here they will never get here they should go home" platform - and winning massively.
I now live in a village of a thousand people where the nearest town is 12 miles away and the nearest city 3 times that, and people have fallen over themselves to be welcoming. I bought a property where the former residents not only had lived there for 30 years but were multi-generational villagers - and people couldn't be warmer to yet more outlanders moving in.
For me it is a straight compare / contrast. Big chunks of England are openly hostile to anyone not from there (whether that means they are from the neighbouring county or another country) with more and more people voting for even more hostility. Scotland couldn't be more different.
As that twitter person said: the rest of us were even told we couldn't see partners who lived in other houses.
Married people in care homes sometimes didn't see their spouse of fifty years for months on end because of HIS rules.
He has to go if these revelations stand up.
I heard one chap describe Keswick as a place where “old Tories go to die”.
CON: 42% (-3)
LAB: 30% (-1)
LDEM: 9% (+3)
GRN: 7% (-)
via @YouGov Chgs. w/ 17 Jun
https://twitter.com/BritainElects/status/1408338690468896768?s=20
When you refer to "the logistics industry" whom do you refer to? The bosses whinging that they want to pay lower wages to their staff? Or the staff? Or are you taking a well rounded balanced look?
If you just mean the owners of the businesses who don't want to pay their staff a living wage then f##k them. They can pay market rates or they can have no staff.
A free market cuts both ways. It doesn't help every business, if they uncompetitive they can go out of business.
Be interesting to see what the snap polling shows on the public view of this.
Out of Hancocks own mouth
Enough.
I'm done with these people.
Some of that shortage will be driven by wages but also by conditions. The wages piece really becomes a problem now thanks to the IR35 changes where freelance drivers are suddenly treated as employees - the big spike in costs can't / won't be met anywhere in the supply chain so people have quit.
The one thing I would agree with Cummings on was that driving down the A688 is a good test and whether you can concentrate enough to drive a long way - that road is a faff to drive along.
No, I’m not going there. It’s too fucking obvious
This is a big misunderstanding: the EU's main interests are actually fundamental to the politics of some of the big players (especially France). Combined with third country status, this will bake structural instability and fractiousness into the relationship for some time 2/
https://twitter.com/Mij_Europe/status/1408333158806925314?s=20
Quite catchy
I'd ban all instant-play gambling. At least when someone is staking money on football matches, horse races, etc, there's a limit due to the number of events. It's the instant games that are the biggest problem.
I actually know one of Matt Hancock's aides, so was a bit concerned to see the story... thankfully it's not her!
Backhaul availability is where a lorry is booked for a one way journey and the pallet network uses the empty spare capacity on the reverse leg to move things cheaply. That empty space doesn't exist at the moment and in a lot of cases its because the initial journeys aren't being made.
Ecclestone, being the top negotiator he was, managed to both achieve his policy aim of getting the tobacco ad ban pushed, and his donation money back.
I'm not a fan of Question Time these days, but I watched the first question last night, which was about letting in UEFA big-wigs, sponsors and so on the watch the UEFA Cup Final. All, I think, except one of the audience, and he was somewhat half-hearted, thought it was wrong, and only Robert Buckland ..... well, he had to to, didn't he ...... of the panel defended it. He wasn't all that keen either.
Similar in the pub the other afternoon...... except of course that RB wasn't there!
I am beginning to feel that 'peak Boris' has passed, and things are going downhill quite rapidly. Might give a new dimension to B&S, too.
Still looking forward to all this cheap Brexit food though, as promised.
Judging from briefly looking in each day, GBN's sound problems seem to have been fixed; streaming is better; lots of adverts and weather forecasts but still barely any news. Studio design looks dated but presumably it is what they wanted. One presenter seemed to be having problems focussing on the autocue – glasses needed?
Strangely it took a lot of effort to block this route - I believe it is still a problem.
...If you think Britain shouldn't help protect the borders of its EU and NATO allies then your an idiot. Putin is a clear and present threat to Western democracy - not some one the democratic left should see as an ally,
https://twitter.com/Paul1Singh/status/1408342062890733575?s=20
I wonder whether the rows over the elite being exempted all over the place are part of this?
This is a great campaign vid on gambling advertising in football;
https://youtube.com/watch?v=GVzvyJeIOaQ
If elements of the supply chain can't compete with higher costs then they'll go out of business and cease to require transport. So the problem goes away. Or they actually can absorb the costs, so they do, so the problem goes away.
Either way your "disruption" is actually the chaos of the market working as it is supposed to do. Not a problem.
Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/transport-use-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic
There are good and bad people everywhere.
For a large proportion of the population, a labour shortage is great news. Maybe not for lawyers, but it is for anyone currently earning at or just above minimum wage.
Another tory with council house teeth.
Play that clip on the news over and over and then see if Johnson can hang on to his health sec.
Would you get a job manually digging basements (most basement digging is still done very manually) at £10 an hour, for example? Basically, rather manual mining, without the pay....
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.